This is Brian Mercedes, my brother-in-law. He’s the Executive Director of Chive Charities and all-around good guy.

This was the day we brought a check from Chive Charities for $200,000 to break ground on KCCO Ability Field, our largest single donation ever. One week later, the Chivers would contribute the remaining $150,000. Construction on the state-of-the-art special needs field will be completed in late August.

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My brother and I always wanted to write “big check.” I mean, where do these things come from?

We threw a Memorial Day meetup for all the troops at one of our favorite watering holes in Austin, Shiner Saloon. We call these “home field meetups.” Basically, parties where we don’t have to get on a plane the next day super hungover. These parties tend to get out of control in a hurry, especially when you factor in 500 servicemen and women who wanna’ do a lot of shots.

At this particular party, the women of theCHIVE set the pace. They brought water guns and filled them with Fireball…

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These were the last photos on my phone from that night. The girls were not messing around.

For the lead image, we needed more sideboob so we had to cut Kat’s tank top a little.

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These are my sisters, Megan and Emily, the day we landed in Paris. We would leave for the beaches of Normandy the next day.

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I hadn’t planned on posting the Normandy photos. It was a private family thing. Our tour guide was actually the one who convinced me the photos needed to be shared to carry on the memory for our WWII veterans. My family agreed.